As a result of a large increase in people working from home, some households will see multiple occupants requiring access to the internet, piling the pressure on download speeds and slowing work down for all.
Rural broadband specialist Airband announced it has made home broadband plans unlimited for customers in the small village of Kempley in Gloucestershire. The move is a pilot for possible similar upgrades to several of its smaller wireless networks that are not yet on unlimited plans.
The small community of Kempley struggled with average download speeds of 0.5-2 Mbps until the independent internet service provider stepped in five years ago and worked with the community to gain funding to create a high-speed wireless broadband network in the area.
“All our customers in Kempley have been upgraded to 40Mbps unlimited packages free of charge for three months, in response to the coronavirus crisis” explained Philippa Blackburn, Airband’s special projects manager.
Airband’s superfast wireless network in Kempley has meant that people like software engineer, Jon Osborne, were able to move to the village.
“The increase in speed and removal of our download limit will mean a significant amount to us as a family, especially considering it is likely that we will all be at home more often for an unforeseeable length of time. The speed increase will remove any impact to me working from home when others are also attempting to access the internet or taking telephone calls.”
“All in all, this is an extremely generous offer from Airband and has in no doubt in my mind helped us out as a family incredibly and I am sure the feeling is shared by other users within our village,” said Jon.
Airband continues to work on the Kempley Combined Solution – a fibre network for an area of the community not currently served with superfast broadband by any provider. The planned network will be built in conjunction with Fastershire – an ongoing partnership between Gloucestershire and Herefordshire councils, aiming to improve broadband speed and connectivity in rural areas.
For further information on how Airband can help in your area please visit www.airband.co.uk.